WHFE-LP
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| WHFE-LP | |
|---|---|
| Sullivan, Indiana | |
| Branding | ABC 18 This Jetstream TV (on DT4) Wabash Valley's Live 7 (on DT5) |
| Analog channel | 18 (UHF) |
| Digital channel | 7 (UHF)(flash-cut) |
| Affiliations | ABC My Network TV/Kids Box TV(simulcast of WVGO) on LD2 AccuWeather on LD3 This TV/JTN Jetstream on LD4 Live Network TV on LD5 |
| Owner | Taylor Media Stations Group |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Call letters meaning | |
| Former affiliations | America One, White Springs TV, |
WHFE-LP is low-power television stations in Sullivan, Indiana, broadcasting locally as an affiliate of ABC on channel 18 (respectively). The stations are owned by Taylor Media Stations Group, and serve different neighborhoods within Sullivan -- WHFE serving entire Sullivan, along with it's sister station WVGO, a My Network TV affiliate. Two additional LPTV translators, WIIB-LP channel 7 in Farmersburg and WKMF-LP channel 32 in Sullivan, relay the signals of WHFE and WVGO.
The stations have plans to vastly-increase their coverage area -- WHFE has separate application and construction permits for their digital companion channels that would increase its power to 15 kW and move the transmitter closer to Terre Haute, to cover that city; while WVGO increases to 150 kW, broadcasting from near the banks of the Wabash River, using a directional antenna that would transmit a "bow-tie" lobe towards Sullivan and Marshall, Illinois.
Although WIIB-LP simulcast the same programming as WHFE-LP, hourly station IDs display only the call letters and channel assignments of WHFE and WVGO.
Until early 2007, all four stations broadcast programming 24/7 from America One. Programming was changed to White Springs TV, which carries commercial-free movies and short subjects, most of which are in the public domain. In July 2008, Taylor Media bought the stations and became separate affilates.
Originally, the WVGO call letter were assigned to AM 730 in East Lansing, Michigan (now WVFN), and later AM 1580 in Saint Johns, Michigan (now WWSJ). Both stations programmed Al Ham's original Music of Your Life format. The format debuted on WVIC-AM 730, then a Top 40 station, in August 1981. Shortly thereafter, WVIC changed calls to WVGO. The Music of Your Life lasted until July 1983, when WVGO's parent company, Goodrich Broadcasting, abandoned the format for a simulcast with Top-40 sister station WVIC-FM, then the dominant station in the Lansing, Michigan market. AM 730's calls then reverted to WVIC-AM.
Saint Johns, Michigan Country music outlet WQTK-AM 1580 was quick to pick up the format and call letters jettisoned by the original WVGO. In October 1983, WQTK became the new WVGO, and picked up Ham's Music of Your Life format. Unfortunately, the station, with studio and transmitter approximately 20 miles north of Lansing, lacked the signal strength needed to adequately cover the market area, and the format lasted little more than a year before both it and the WVGO calls were abandoned for a second time in early 1985. The call letters have never again resurfaced in the Lansing market.
